Adding a Fireplace

Ready or not it’s winter! The solstice has come and gone. The days may be getting longer but it’s still gonna be cold out for the next two months. What better way to wait out cold winter days than in front of a fireplace? So what if your house doesn’t actually come with a fireplace. You can always get install one. Yes, I just told you to install a fireplace in your already fully built house.

Here’s the thing, we’re deep into the late 2010s. You don’t need to take out part of a wall and build a chimney to get a fireplace if you truly desire one. It’ll definitely cost money, a lot of money… it’s an investment. Think of a fireplace as a slightly risky investment, an investment you can enjoy and could, maybe payoff.   

So, fireplaces are a desirable feature. Almost 40% of homebuyers said they would pay extra for a house with a fireplace. The best way to maximize the payoff of a fireplace is to ensure that the price of the fireplace is proportionate to the overall value of the house. A fireplace isn’t calculated separately in a professional home appraisal a $10,000 fireplace holds its value in a $1 million house because buyers expect this feature in an upscale home but a $10,000 fireplace won’t be such a crucial component of a $100,000 house. The fireplace is not going to be the main draw of a lower scale home… so maybe focus on other stuff, like curb appeal.

Also, put it somewhere it’ll actually be used, like a den, family room, great room, etc. Equip your fireplace with energy-efficient glass doors and an exterior venting system that prevents heated air from being pulled out of rooms. If you want fireplaces for smaller rooms, if you are so inclined, to think about a small gas fireplace that’s easy to maintain.

Fireplace makeover

Baby it’s cold outside! So what’s better than a fireplace!? I apologize for the bad
pun but seriously, fireplaces are amazing in the winter time. It’s just an objectively
great feature to have in your home… unless it’s ugly. Unfortunately, it is very
possible that your fireplace might be ugly or maybe it just doesn’t go with your
aesthetic. Let’s face it, fireplaces often show the decade the house was built more
than any other piece of architecture, and sometimes… those decades sense
of interior style are garbage.

Decals! You can legitimately use decals. You’re going to have to put in a lot of
thought to make sure that the design your going for, goes on right but if done
right decals on tile could look amazing. Besides the mental energy it’s a pretty
simple project. It’s also a super cheap way of doing a high impact upgrade to
your fireplace.

Another DIY upgrade you can make to your fireplace that should be simple and
relatively cheap is painting it! You can paint just about any surface, not sure that
you should (don’t paint marble or granite, I’ll disown you), but you can! Tile, just
takes a little bit of forethought, a little bit of primer, and some acrylic paint and
you’ll have a brand new look. You can paint brick. You can do a wash over the
brick in any color you please to give the room a modern trendy look.
Continuing the color onto the walls, up to the ceiling can also add height to the
room! So that’s a really cool treatment that could enhance your entire space.
Uneven or stacked stone would probably look wired but you can knock yourself
out trying.

One other thing you can do to brick is dye it! This isn’t quite as easy as painting
but it looks more natural, like it was the bricks original color. You can go from a
classic brick red color to something softer like grey or vice versa.

Don’t have a fireplace? That’s to bad. You can check out our article on installing
your own fireplace. However, if you’re just looking for the aesthetic you can also
get a fireplace façade! Pick up a faux fireplace and make it interesting. Fill it to
the brim with logs or books or other interesting things. Go wild! It’s not a
permanent part of the house anyways.

Taking Care of Clutter: Part 1

Clutter. You put it away, you throw stuff out, you’ve done everything you can think of to get it
off of your floors and tabletops. Yet, here it is, back once again. Making the room you just
cleaned, visually look messier than it really is. So, what can be done with an unruly item
that can’t be thrown away and refuses to stay out of site?

If you can’t beat the clutter one way you can manage it by putting it on display. You may
be thinking that your clutter being on display is the entirety of the problem. That’s why you
need to curate the way your clutter is displayed. Do you have a lot of one or similar items? I’d
call that a collection. Give that stuff a specific shelf or shelves, arrange them aesthetically,
and there it is your unmanageable clutter has become a display. I have a thing for tea and
buying teacups and pots, so much so that I literally have nowhere to put them. I use the cups
that I don’t regularly use as decoration or to store small things like coins and keys aesthetically.

Your “collection” doesn’t even have to make sense. Make a display of stuff, that kinda looks
good together. IDK, go on Pinterest, Pinterest will teach how to display stuff. When I display
things I look for shapes and colors that compliment each other and give them a similar purpose
or at least make them hold things that have a purpose and then it doesn’t look like you’re
wasting space but using it very prettily.   

The tea cups may have told you that I like collecting knick knacks. The majority of my property
may just be stuff I bought on impulse at vintage and antique shops. What I’m trying to say is
that I have swords, tea cups, plushies, a metal top hat, and ceramic moose a friend got me as a
joke displayed equally on my headboard. You can arrange anything and make it make sense.

Letting in More Light for the Winter

Winter is finally here! I don’t know about any of you but between the cold and the dark it’s a struggle for me everyday not to hibernate. One way to counteract this is to brighten up the interior. If you can utilize what little natural light there is it will go a long way to brightening up the interior. Letting in more light will also naturally warm up your space, saving you money on heating as well as helping you fight off winter drowsiness.

One thing you can do is get rid of your window screens. Removing the screens will allow around 30% more light through the windows. Keep them somewhere they won’t get damaged, so you can put them back in the spring.

Update your rooms with light colors. Objects, furniture, walls light colored things bounce light instead of absorbing it like darker colors. The more light you have bouncing around the room the brighter the room will be. For more temporary fixes you could pick up lighter rugs and chair covers.

Another way to bounce more light around the room is to have reflective surfaces. Consider getting things with mirrored or reflective surfaces. You could make a cool gallery wall with mirrors and frames with reflective surfaces.

Consider replacing heavy curtains with a lighter fabric for the winter. While you’ll lose a little insulation and warmth; however with lighter curtains you will gain a significant amount of light. Getting lighter curtains will also open up the room and make it feel larger.

If you have any overhanging tree limbs or shrubbery blocking your windows… well get rid of it. It’s winter, it’s time to cut back any overhanging foliage anyways. You can do as many light enhancing tricks as you like but if sunlight is being literally blocked there’s only so much you can do.

Last tip, clean your windows. Didn’t think about that did you? Dirty windows block out a lot more natural light then you would think. I suggest you do it now before it gets to cold.

Keeping Your Home Miraculously Clean Part:2

One of the main reasons we accumulate clutter is because all the stuff we have lying around is because honestly, ain’t nobody has time. There are dishes in the sink, stuff has slumped its way off of its chairs and tables onto the floor, things got dropped and you can’t always stop whatever you’re doing to pick it up immediately. It’s hard to keep up with the mountain of dishes, to beat back the disorder that came to your room literally overnight and in the process of getting ready in the morning, stuff just ends up on the ground. Mess just happens, but here’s a few ways keep everything to disintegrating.

I know the last thing you want to do in the morning is chores. I know I personally don’t get up until the last possible moment in the morning. Just try to fit in time to not specifically make your bed if you’re not the type who likes to make your bed every day, just straighten out the blankets and toss the pillows back to the head of the bed.

Another thing you can do at the beginning of the day is quickly unload the dishwasher on your way out of the house. If your dishwasher is empty before you leave then every time you create dirty dishes they can go straight into the dishwasher.

An easy thing you can do during the day to keep the house tidy is just pick things up as you go. When you’re walking through a room and you see something on the floor or that doesn’t belong there, pick it up. Put it where it goes. If you make this a habit it should cut down significantly on the clutter before it has a chance to accumulate.

The last thing is to find 20 minutes, it doesn’t have to be at the end of the day, just find some time too straighten up one room. Just give yourself a small task and accomplish it. Getting even one productive thing done in a day makes me feel like I’ve achieved something, and even if you haven’t gotten the entire house straightened, you’ll have done something and feel good about it.

Closet organization: Shelves and drawers

Closet organization doesn’t have to begin and end at how and where you hang your clothes. For some people having space for folded clothes is more is more usable, a.k.a more useful. However, not everyone has the to shove a dresser into their closet, a dresser definitely isn’t the best solution for what some people are looking for. So, for all the people who can’t and probably wouldn’t want to anyways, let me suggest a shelf and draw system.

A shelf and draw system is exactly what it sounds like, a series of shelves and drawers that would
give your closet all the pros of having a dresser without the cons all the cons of stuffing a big piece
of furniture into your closet. There are tons of options for closet customization available to buy and
DIY yourself. That’s before you consider having shelves custom built for you.

There are several ways you can go about setting up a shelf and drawer system in your closet. You
could use a basket system which would use layers of shelves using baskets as an alternative for
drawers. This approach has the possibility of being exponentially more decorative as well as being
able to pick and choose the size and relative shape of said baskets. Baskets can be used to sort
any number of things clothes, shoes, accessories, etc.

A cubby system would be a sort of hybrid between shelves and cubbies. Depending on the size
cubbies would be more useful for organizing shoes and one-off items, such as a sweater or other
clothing item to delicate to hang. Larger cubbies can either be arranged decoratively to stare
jewelry or store a pile of folded or rolled clothes. Just about anything stored in a cubby would be
on display, which is great when you’re deciding what to wear.

Adding a dresser or custom drawer system would not be out of the question for an addition to a
closet. The top of a dresser can be used as a table or surface space where jewelry or accessories
such as hats could be stored. The space below hanging clothes or shelves could also be used for
shoe storage by adding a simple shoe rack. However, these kinds of additions would have to be
chosen carefully with regards to the aesthetic of the rest of the closet.

Closet Storage: Stagger Rod System

Ok, so closets usually come in with a standard rod or rod shelf combo that spans across the length of

your closet. This system is fine, you can organize a system based off just this hardware. Long clothes
shorter clothes in middle or vice versa. However, an improved version of this basic rod system may
be a staggered rod system.

A staggered rod system is basically using rods at different levels. The idea is that having staggered
rod system makes it possible to optimize your closet space by stacking levels, fitting more clothes into
the same space, as well as leaving space above and below for storage of things like shoes, accessories,
folded clothes, etc. You can place the rods wherever you please based upon your own needs, closet size
and shape, as well as organizational preferences.  

Double Hang Rods, would be stacked rods above and another rod below.  The top rod should be placed
above your eyeline but comfortably within reach. FamilyHandyman.com suggests you put it at
approximately 84 inches high. The lower rod should be about half of that. If you followed the suggestion
of placing the top rod at 84 inches that would place the lower rod around 42 inches.  This would give the
clothes on top and bottom equal hanging distance for bottoms, tops, jackets, etc.

Long Hang Rods, for hanging pants at full length, dresses, long skirts, long jackets, and coats, etc. items
long enough to reach below the knees or calf length while wearing it. Still, above eyeline, the length
suggested is around 70 inches off the ground.

Medium length rods or Pants rod, this height is for stuff that doesn’t need to be at the length of long hang
rods but are kind of long for the height given to the double hang rods. Items around knee-length or
full-length clothes that you prefer to folded over. The suggested height for that rod was around 60 inches.
If you wear enough pants and own enough for them to need their own rods the suggested length is around
54 inches.

Interior painting tips

So, it is time to break out the rollers and paint chips. There’s a thousand and one reasons that might cause you to need to paint or repaint some of the walls in your house. Maybe you just moved in and the color of the walls are not quite to your liking. Maybe you're tired of your old colors or want to add an accent wall. Maybe, you’re just covering up some old water damage. Either way it’s time to paint. Here are some tips that I hope will keep this process from being a chore.

Do your prep! We’re not off to a good start. Prep work, as essential as it is, is undeniably a chore. You just want to get the process done but you’re stuck with a bunch of extra steps. Hopefully doing this prep work will save you time in the long run by eliminating the cause of unnecessary problems that you’d have to struggle to fix later. First, patch up any holes. The look of any holes will be exacerbated by painting. Remember to sand the spots you’ve filled

in so that it matches the rest of the wall. Not sanding will also make the damaged spots stand out more.  

Next, clean your walls.  Just a quick once over will do. Run over the walls with a broom and then a quickly rub down the walls with a microfiber cloth to get rid of the last of the dirt. Having clean walls prepares the surface for painting and prevents premature peeling. Finally, primer, Primer, PRIMER! The step everyone wants to skip. You may want to take another sitting just to do this. You could get a two-in-one paint and see how that works out for you (I’m not a paint expert you tell me). Either way primer is a must if you’re looking for longevity, it makes the color of the new paint color show up better. This is especially true if your covering up a darker color. Primer just generally makes the whole thing look nicer.

Trim! You’re going to want to use as few paint strokes as possible when going over the trim. The fewer strokes you can use while painting trim the smoother the end result will look.  Load up the brush with paint to avoid skips in paint that you’d have to go back over and use long strokes. Overlap the previous stroke a little to avoid missed spots that you’d have to go back over with shorter stokes.

Brushes

To keep brushes from going dry when you need to walk away by using ziplock bags or plastic wrap. Plastic will hold in the moisture for several hours if you need to walk away. If your using a ziplock, cut a whole in the bottom, open the bag put the brush in handle first through the while you made, and zip it up.  

In order to keep brushes prepared between coats of paint you can keep your brushes, handle up in water. This keeps your brushes from getting hard and while cleaning off the excess paint from the brushes. I wouldn’t suggest you mix colors.

Putting You into Your Home STEP THREE: Details

When you’re trying to personalize your space it’s good to know the big picture, nail down the aesthetic you’re looking for and use that image to anchor you to your idea. Having one central idea in mind and expanding from there is important. However, what really pulls your vision together into one cohesive whole, are the details. When you first move into a house many of the elements of the house are generic, that was probably by design. The goal is to make a house as bland as possible, so potential buyers would have an easier time imagining what they want in that space. Meaning everything is generic.

The first thing that is often bland or generic and easily changed is the walls or the paint/wallpaper on them. After you’ve finished visualizing what you want, you should choose your paint scheme. You can look at the first article in this series about the painting your space to make it yours or our “choosing your paint” series. The next generic things you can replace are the doors, especially the front and exterior doors. For personal rooms, it may be

cute to paint the doors. It could be a nice transition from the design schemes from the communal spaces into personal spaces. Changing doors can really customize the presentation of the entire space, so imagine what you can do with exterior doors. Nice or painted shutters would also have a similar effect. Also, consider replacing the garage door. It’s on the front of the house, it says almost as much about the house as the front door. According to Remodeling Magazine replacing the front door ranked high on cost recuperation, so if you have the money it would definitely be worth it.

Next, Flowers! Usually, homes for sale try to present a nice landscape to entice buyers inside. However, that landscape is often just a tidy average suburban house sort of presentation. Don’t get me wrong plants are nice. Inside they provide fresh air and color… they do that outside too, but yeah, they’re nice! Plants outside the house are a great opportunity to prep visitors for the general aesthetic inside the house. You need to plan this out strategically, plants can easily get expensive and arranging flower beds is no walk in the park. Know what colors you want, remember that plants need a specific amount of sunlight and shade, know what season your plants thrive in. You’re going to need to do research. Also, consider getting plant boxes. They can be a lovely addition to a house and the pop of color would draw the eye further up the house.

Then there’s lighting. We have articles extensively going over lighting and the how to curate the lighting in your home. Check out the second article in this series and our article “Choosing Your Light Fixtures”. Light fixtures are often one of the most generic things in a house and changing the lighting is one of the best ways to personalize a space.

Finally, Home accessories. I know how vague that is, that can mean a lot of things. When I say home accessories I mean things like the metal balls you can put in glass bowls to decorate a table. I mean candles and the types of candle holders you might want. I’m talking about wall art and tabletop sculptures. These pieces should be more thematic than most other items in the house. This brings us back to visualization, it’s one of the reasons it’s a good idea to have actual visual references to go back to.

Delana Cotton servers the north east Atlanta region that includes Dacula, Winder, Lawrenceville, Buford, Snellville, Conyers and surrounding areas. Delana treats every transaction as if she were you, the buyer or seller. If you have a real estate transaction on the horizon, meet Delana for a no pressure chat over coffee.